Makkah man of mine.

After the Explosion

Episode 15 — After the Explosion

The explosion tore through the garage.

Amina felt herself lifted from the ground before everything went black.

For several seconds, there was nothing.

No sound.

No light.

No fear.

Then she heard someone calling her name.

“Amina! Amina, wake up!”

She opened her eyes.

Youssef was kneeling beside her, blood running from a cut above his eyebrow.

“Are you hurt?”

“My head…”

“Can you move?”

Amina nodded.

She looked around.

The garage was almost destroyed. Smoke filled the air, and pieces of the roof had collapsed across the entrance.

“Sami?”

Youssef looked behind him.

There was no sign of him.

“Sami!”

They began searching through the wreckage.

Then Amina heard a faint groan.

They moved towards it.

Sami was trapped beneath a wooden beam.

“Help me!”

Youssef lifted the beam enough for Amina to pull Sami free.

Sami was bruised but conscious.

“The memory card,” he gasped.

Amina searched his jacket.

“It's gone.”

Sami's eyes widened.

“No.”

Youssef looked towards the smoking remains of the motorcycle.

“Someone took it.”

Amina suddenly noticed footprints leading away from the garage.

Fresh footprints.

Someone had survived the explosion.

She followed them to the broken doorway.

Outside, a black car was disappearing down the road.

“They have it.”

Sami stood beside her.

“They have more than the card.”

“What do you mean?”

He looked frightened.

“The card wasn't the only copy.”

Amina stared at him.

“Where's the other one?”

Sami reached into his pocket and pulled out a tiny silver pendant.

Amina recognised it immediately.

It was identical to the crescent necklace her father had given her as a child.

“This contains the backup,” Sami explained.

“Then why did you let them take the card?”

“Because I wanted them to think they had everything.”

Youssef smiled faintly.

“For the first time tonight, that's actually good news.”

But Amina wasn't smiling.

She was staring at the road.

“Where is my father?”

No one answered.

Then a phone began ringing inside the wrecked garage.

Amina found it beneath a pile of broken wood.

The screen showed one message:

DON'T TRUST YOUR FATHER.

A second message appeared immediately.

DON'T TRUST YOUSSEF EITHER.

Amina looked at both men.

And for the first time, she wondered if she had been running from the wrong enemy all along.